


Treasuring The Good Times

by Ink_Gypsy



Category: Criminal Minds
Genre: Gen, Prompt Fic, fffc, tv character fic
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-04-07
Updated: 2017-04-07
Packaged: 2018-10-15 20:43:10
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 482
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10557420
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Ink_Gypsy/pseuds/Ink_Gypsy
Summary: Dealing with his mother’s illness is difficult, but treasuring the good times helps Spencer Reid cope.





	

**Author's Note:**

> Written for the FFFC community on LJ and DW in response to the prompt word _veil_.

For so long they’d had just each other. He still had a father, but for all intents and purposes, that relationship had ended long ago. From the time Spencer Reid was eight years old, family had meant mother and son, although her schizophrenia had forced those traditional roles to be reversed.

Spencer had become the parent at a very young age, necessity forcing him to transition from being the charge to becoming the caregiver, but he didn’t resent her for it. He couldn’t blame her for something that wasn’t her fault, so he never complained, and he never considered her a burden.

When Diana Reid’s condition made it necessary for her to be confined to a mental hospital, Spencer had let her go, but he’d never abandoned her. He called her weekly, and whenever his work with the FBI’s Behavioral Analysis Unit permitted, he went to see her, keeping their bond alive, even though he knew she would most likely live out the rest of her days institutionalized.

[](http://imgur.com/smVRARq)

As if dealing with her schizophrenia wasn’t difficult enough, fate had played an even crueler joke on him. Diana Reid had developed Alzheimer’s Disease. Spencer had been able to deal with his mother’s delusions and hallucinations because she was still his mother, but now, with bits of her slipping away every day, the idea that the woman he knew and loved might soon disappear completely was too painful for him to contemplate.

The first time she didn’t recognize him, looked at him quizzically and asked, “Who are you?” it almost broke Spencer’s heart. Even worse were the times when she seemed afraid of him. To see that fear in her eyes was worse than the lack of recognition. Never knowing what to expect made his visits to his mother so fraught with tension that he almost considered not going to see her in person anymore, but being a good son, he continued to visit, bracing himself for whatever condition Diana Reid might be in when he arrived.

[](http://imgur.com/hSPXRFp)

But every once in a while when he visited his mother, Spencer received a pleasant surprise. On those rare, wonderful days, Diana not only recognized her son, but remembered their life together. The last time it happened, Diana took out the scrapbook she’d kept since Spencer’s birth, and they sat together and shared their recollections of the photos. Some of the photos were of Spencer at such a young age that he didn’t remember when they were taken, but Diana remembered the story behind each one, and shared them with him.

With the veil momentarily lifted from Diana’s eyes, she was his mother again, the woman he knew and loved, and having her back for even a short period of time was precious to him. Spencer knew there would be difficult times ahead, but treasuring the good times, past and present, would help him get through them.


End file.
